My Second Life Begins as an Adorable Little Girl
“Hweeehek…?”
When I came to my senses, a blue sky stretched above me.
This was not the world of endless storm clouds my power had once shrouded, but clear skies — the first I had beheld in thousands of years.
“That accursed Hero…! Did he truly reincarnate me?”
And after hitting me with a bizarre beam of light, no less — something called the Squishy-Squishy Beam?!
I scrambled up from where I lay in a flustered panic, only to notice something terribly wrong: my eye level had dropped far, far too low.
So I looked down at myself, and…!
“Hweeehek?! What in the world is this squishy little girl's body?!”
Where had my proud Demon King's physique gone?! In its place was a body that seemed barely half my former height!!
And why on earth was my voice like this? My manner of speech, too?!
At that very moment, strange writing appeared before my eyes.
The Hero has placed a curse upon the Demon King, steeped in resentment.
Effect 1.
Your words and deeds shall now become cute.
No matter how you struggle against it, cuteness will always accompany your speech and actions.
Effect 2.
You have been transformed into a squishy, adorable young girl of great promise.
In exchange, you have lost all of your Demon King's power.
“Hiiiik… the Hero's Curse? That's why I talk like this??”
Fine. If this were the extent of it, I supposed I could endure it somehow.
After all, as Demon King I had slain countless humans — a little vengeance like this was only my due.
But then….
Effect 3.
Your life is being watched over by the Viewers.
A curse is active: if your view count drops, you die.
Should you meet your end, you will die in the manner you despise most.
What is that?!
Viewers??? I die if my view count drops???
No — death itself holds no fear for me.
But dying in the manner I despise most… what in the world was that supposed to mean…?
In that instant, the crazed face of the Hero flashed before my eyes — the last thing I'd seen before my reincarnation.
Chilling…!!
A shiver ran down my spine.
In over three thousand years of life, never once had I felt such terror.
“Don't tell me… am I doomed to die the way I did back then…?”
My body trembled uncontrollably, all on its own.
Perhaps it was because I now inhabited this frail little girl's frame — or perhaps because that mad Hero terrified me so. I honestly couldn't tell.
“Absolutely not!! Anything but that!!”
This time around, I would die with the majesty befitting a Demon King!
As if I would ever meet such a miserable end!!
“First things first… I need to grow.”
No way I could survive this harsh world in a body this young.
I had no idea what kind of world this was, but….
“Through rigorous training and proper nutrition, I shall grow by leaps and bounds into a magnificent body!!”
I thrust one hand high into the air and roared.
And then.
“Oh my, oh my~ looks like the little one wants to be a fine grown-up when she's bigger~ How wonderful~.”
“Our grandkids were exactly like that at her age, hohoho.”
The grandmothers strolling nearby clapped and showered me with praise, patting my head as they did.
In three thousand years of living as the Demon King….
this was the first time a human had ever praised me.
One year later.
“Hoo-hoo… hoo-hoo….”
Squats: 3.
Push-ups: 2.
100-meter dash: 30 seconds.
Height: 101 centimeters.
I was improving by the day……… I WAS NOT, AAAARGH~!!
“Why won't I grow any taller~!!”
And my strength was a laughingstock, too!
Two push-ups??? Two???
I ran slower than the average human child!
Raging, I threw a tantrum at the neighborhood Mineral Spring I'd visited yet again today.
At that, the grandmothers watching me from nearby with kindly faces began to chuckle, “hohoho.”
“How endearing, working so hard every single day~”
“Little one~ have some tteok first, then exercise~”
Tteok?
At those words I shot to my feet and dashed over to the grandmother in a flash.
Nom~!!
“So delishious~!!”
Once again, the Hero's Curse had wrung a toddler's babble out of me.
Nothing to be done about it.
I'd spent the past year trying my hardest, but this curse was beyond my power to break — for now.
But someday, I will solve it, just you wait~!
Pat, pat.
The grandmothers, seizing their chance, stroked my hair.
With my sleek black hair falling to my waist and big, obsidian-dark eyes, even I, the Demon King himself, had to admit my future prospects looked quite promising.
That Hero sure reincarnated me into a convenient world, didn't he.
Yes — these past twelve months haven't been all play.
I studied up on this world through the Internet, enough to understand what kind of place it was~!
And the ones who helped me with that were none other than the grandmothers before me.
The two of them had become my loyal subordinates, obedient to my every command!
“Granma, gimme a drink.”
“There, there~ here's the strawberry juice our little Ru-ri loves so much~”
My faithful Subordinate #1, Grandmother Han Yeosa, produced a drink for me.
Glug, glug — pwaah~!! So delishious~!
“Our little Ru-ri, I brought something tasty too — won't you try some~?”
Beside her, my faithful Subordinate #2, Grandmother Kim I-so, pulled out bread.
“Bread!!”
The bread of this world called Earth was magnificent!
Nothing like the rock-hard loaves of the world I once ruled — it was a different dimension entirely!
Truth be told, when it came to food, I liked this world better!
I simply had to hurry and grow up so I could conquer it!
And then I'd get to eat even more delicious things, wouldn't I?
“Nom nom nom… once I conquer the world, I'll grant half of it to Grandmother Han Yeosa and Grandmother Kim I-so, as a special favor!”
“Ohohoho, is that so~? We look forward to it~”
“Then you'd better eat lots and grow up big and strong~”
I want to, believe me!
But thanks to this, it's not happening… sigh.
Effect 4. Your body shall never grow.
By the Hero's fervent desire, you shall live squishy and adorable for all your days.
That Hero….
Because of that pervert, no amount of daily training did me any good.
Frankly, at this point I figured I ought to give up on building muscle and aim to grow strong some other way….
Besides, there was this other thing gnawing at me….
Effect 3.
Your life is being watched over by the Viewers.
A curse is active: if your view count drops, you die.
Should you meet your end, you will die in the manner you despise most.
Having spent a year researching on the Internet, I understood the dictionary definition of “Viewer.”
But if the view count drops?? What did that mean?
I hadn't died in a whole year, which I took to mean my view count had never yet fallen to lethal levels….
Could it be that the grandmothers watching me every day are what's keeping me alive?
Would that make these two grandmothers count as two views?
Uuu… I don't get it~!! This is so hawd~!!
“Ru-ri, sweetie~ what's got you thinking so hard~?”
By now I'd grown used to the grandmothers calling me “Ru-ri.”
It was probably another of the Hero's doing — an ID card from this world had turned up in my pocket, you see.
The name written on it was Lee Ru-ri.
“Ru-ri” of the “Lee” family.
As it happened, in this country “Ru-ri-rah” also meant “a vow to make one's wishes come true,” so the grandmothers always called me “Ru-ri” rather than simply “Ruri.”
They seemed to take to the name with genuine delight.
“Nothing much — I was just thinking about what snack I should get tomorrow.”
“Hohoho, of course you were~”
There was no way I could tell them what I was really thinking.
Tell them I'd ruled the world for three thousand years in another realm? They'd never believe it.
In a body this tiny, nothing I say would carry an ounce of conviction anyway….
“I'll be going now.”
When I hopped up from my spot after finishing every last snack, the grandmothers' faces clouded with disappointment.
“Ru-ri, sweetie, next time bring your mom and dad over to visit us, won't you.”
“Yes~ we live over there, in the houses with the yellow roofs.”
I turned my head at those words and saw two old, tiny houses standing there.
So that was why they came out for walks so often — their homes were close to the Mineral Spring.
My Subordinates #1 and #2, living in shabby little hovels like those!
How humiliating, as their Demon King!
My Subordinates #1 and #2, by rights, should be living in the lap of luxury on lands worthy of a nation!!
“Well then, see you around, grannies~.”
“Come see us tomorrow, sweetie~.”
The two grandmothers patted my head and went on their way.
Watching their backs as they shuffled off, I found myself thinking they didn't have many years left.
Human lifespans were absurdly short, after all.
Seeing them hobble along on worn-out knee joints, leaning hard on their canes, I figured they had ten years at the outside.
Since muscle training has failed, I must press on with Plan B — and quickly.
I couldn't just leave my Subordinates #1 and #2 to waste away and die like that!
According to my Internet research, this Earth fortunately possessed something called the Tower.
Within that Tower dwelled beings known as Anomalies, which brought about strange phenomena — phenomena otherwise known as Urban Legends.
Conquer an Urban Legend, they say, and you can obtain all manner of items at random.
Yes — by becoming a Hunter and climbing the Tower, I could earn money with the items I gathered.
And among those items, it seemed, were powers resembling the magic of my old world.
And if magic exists, then healing those grandmothers' bodies should be possible too!
Beyond that, I might even be able to undo the curse that Hero laid upon me.
I've already given up on the becoming-a-girl part.
Gender hardly matters in the grand scheme of things. Fine by me.
But I refuse to live out my days as a squishy little toddler~!
If I could get my hands on magic-like power, transforming this body would be within reach, surely?
It has to be!
Don't tell me I'm stuck being this squishy little mite for the rest of eternity?
Right — starting tomorrow, I become a Hunter and conquer the Tower!
Having gathered all that information over my year on Earth, I set myself a new goal and headed back to the forest where my Box Hideout lay hidden.
In the dead of early morning.
“Mmmh… what is that? Something's all shiny and sparkly….”
I had been asleep in my Box Hideout deep in the forest when something glinting between the undergrowth caught my eye, and I blearily opened my lids.
“Mmmh…?”
In the far distance, flames.
As the Demon King, I had seen such sights until I was sick of them — but this was the first time I had witnessed something burning in this world.
The place where the flames raged was the row of houses with the yellow roofs.
I stared at it, dumbstruck, until a certain phrase suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Yes~ we live over there, in the houses with the yellow roofs.”
“…AH!!!”
My mind snapped into focus.
“That's the grannies' house that's burning!”
I ran, mindless of everything else.
“Owch!”
I tripped mid-sprint and went tumbling hard down the dirt path, but there was no time to care about a little pain.
I hauled myself back up and ran for my life.
Why were these legs so unbearably slow?! It made me want to curse!
In my past life as the Demon King, I'd have covered this distance in the blink of an eye!!
FWOOOOSH—!!
By the time I arrived, the house was already ablaze with terrifying ferocity.
“Granma!! Granma!!!”
I cried out desperately, but no answer came.
It was the dead of early morning — no one nearby seemed to have even noticed the fire.
This was dangerous.
Humans are frail.
A fire like this is lethal to them.
Breathe in even a little smoke, and they'd suffocate.
I hurried toward the burning house.
“Hot!! It's so hot!!”
It was so hot that tears streamed from my eyes.
I had never known pain like this.
It hit home, then — I had truly become a weak, fragile human.
“No… this can't be happening…!”
Was I really going to lose the grandmothers like this?
The memories of the past year we'd shared came flooding through my mind.
Those precious grandmothers, who had shown me nothing but kindness, asking nothing in return….
“I will NOT lose them like this!!”
I would save them.
No matter what — I would save them myself!
FWOOSH—!!!
Gritting my teeth against the searing agony of the flames, I threw myself into the burning house to rescue my grandmothers.